Posted on by Mark Blackburn

52 Ways to Reduce Your Environmental Footprint – 17. Food Waste

We live in confusing times!

Food resources are stretched to the limit and for the ethical consumer, how to make sustainable, healthy and practical choices? There is so much to consider – animal welfare, food waste, human welfare, land erosion, unsustainable practices, deforestation and so on.

How can we make sense of it all? And how can we help?

Today

7.5 billion people consume 1.6 times what the earth’s natural resources can supply. Consider the following facts;

  • Wildlife has declined by 58% in the last 40 years (Source: Sustainable Living Index)
  • Water consumption for food represents around 69% of all available freshwater (Source: FAO)
  • Of our available land, over 30% is currently used for food. The remainder is required for habitation by human and animals. Considering that vast area’s of unusable land exist, such as deserts and frozen tundra, only around 15% of land is available for additional food production.
  • Of all the food we make today, over 1/3 is wasted (Source: FAO)

By 2050, if the world’s population reaches 9 billion, the demand for food will double! The maths don’t add up.

We don’t have a food problem. We have an efficiency problem.

Food Waste

Perhaps the easiest thing to do is reduce the amount of food you waste. These tips are not only easy but they will save you money as well. Below is a infographic from the WWF to help minimise the amount of food waste every week.

food waste tips, wwf, one brown planet

For more tips on reducing food waste, check out the One Brown Planet Food Waste toolkit.

There are so many ways in which we can help reduce our environmental footprint but with so much going on it is hard sometimes to remember. Rather than remember, the best way is to form a habit and the best way to form a habit is by utilising the 3 R’s:

  1. Reminder (the trigger that initiates the behaviour)
  2. Routine (the behaviour itself; the action you take)
  3. Reward (the benefit you gain from doing the behaviour)

Each week, for 52 weeks, we will post a new idea to help you reduce your waste and work towards a cleaner less polluted lifestyle. Hopefully, by the end, some of the idea’s will become habitual and stick with you forever. Consider this to be your gift to the world.